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For the past couple of years, I have, to my consternation, seen recipes calling for the use of Greek yogurt and not been able to find any. About a year ago this enigmatic food came to my local Ingles grocery store. I decided that, unless they put it on special sale, I could never buy it because it was hugely expensive. Well, luckily it did go on sale and I tried it and was hooked. I like regular yogurt, but Greek seems so much creamier, that even the plain variety is pretty good, and when mixed with fruit, granola, and/or honey, it's the stuff I daydream about. It works as a substitute in recipes calling for sour cream and sometimes even mayo. It's a great dairy product.

It is, however, too expensive for me to buy regularly. So, what then is a girl to do? Make her own. That's right. Greek yogurt is not some special concoction only known by a select few. It's really just regular yogurt with much of the liquid removed.

I came across this recipe or method on Southern Living, in the how to division of the food section. There's a great video here.

Before tasting the end result, I was a little worried- would this taste as good as what I buy in the store, or would it fall short? Would it have the same creaminess? Amazingly, I can't tell a difference between this yogurt and store bought. Unless I have a coupon, I will never buy Greek yogurt again. I will be making it.

To make Greek yogurt, buy a large carton of the yogurt of your choice, and allow the liquid to drain out over several hours through a coffee filter lined sieve into a bowl. Discard the liquid (if you can find a use for this please let me know what you do!), and store in a container in the fridge.

See pictures below for the method!

1. Purchase a carton of yogurt. I prefer plain because of the low sugar content and the different additions I can make. For any legal purposes, this is not an official endorsement of Laura Lynn brand. :)

2. Get a large bowl. Place inside it a large sieve. Place inside the large sieve a large coffee filter. Pour in yogurt.

3. Cover with plastic wrap and drain at least 8 hours. I did this overnight. Here's what it looks like afterward:

4. Look at all that liquid! I know you can't tell it from the picture, but it's at least a cup and a half. Again, just pour that out or let me know if you can think of something to do with it!

5. Now I know why Greek yogurt is more expensive! I placed the yogurt back in its original container and saw how much I lost. It's reduced to about 1/2 to 2/3 its original volume.

Now, just use the yogurt like you would any other kind of yogurt- eat plain, with toppings and add-ins, or sub in for sour cream or mayo in certain recipes. I used this in a quiche in place of mayo and in a cake in place of sour cream. Both turned out great, but that's another post.